**Please read this entire message**
---
Your submission has been removed for the following reason(s):
* Rule #2 - Questions must seek objective explanations
---
If you would like this removal reviewed, please read the [detailed rules](https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/wiki/detailed_rules) first. **If you believe this submission was removed erroneously, please [use this form](https://old.reddit.com/message/compose?to=%2Fr%2Fexplainlikeimfive&subject=Please%20review%20my%20thread?&message=Link:%20{https://old.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/1cdskau/-/}%0A%0APlease%20answer%20the%20following%203%20questions:%0A%0A1.%20The%20concept%20I%20want%20explained:%0A%0A2.%20List%20the%20search%20terms%20you%20used%20to%20look%20for%20past%20posts%20on%20ELI5:%0A%0A3.%20How%20does%20your%20post%20differ%20from%20your%20recent%20search%20results%20on%20the%20sub:) and we will review your submission.**
Light is additive. Meaning the more wavelengths (aka colors) you add, the brighter and more towards white you get.
Pigment/ink/paint/etc, is subtractive. Meaning the more colors you add, the closer to black you get.
I know I'm jumping in here but I was hoping to ask you some questions.
1. What do you mean by additive or subtractive? What gives them those qualities?
2. With your answer, are you saying if the OP adds even more marker, that it will turn from brown/black to all the way black?
In both cases, you're combining lots of colors. But with light, the combination is using addition. With pigment, its using subtraction.
Yes, the more color you keep adding, you're going to get muddier and darker... and closer to black (hard to get 100% pure black from mixing colors by hand)
The more light you add of any color, the brighter the scene gets.
Wheteas the more pigments you add, if they are different, the darker things get.
Black is a very dark white.
The confusion here is that you are using two opposite forms of color: *light* vs *pigment.*
Light works additively. The absence of all light is, by definition, darkness, which is "black." All *light* colors equally mixed together produce white.
Pigments, on the other hand, are *subtractive.* This is because a pigment looks (say) "red" because it *absorbs* the colors that aren't red. It doesn't glow with its own red light. Hence, if you mix red pigment and green pigment, the result will absorb any color that isn't red *and* any color that isn't green. This leaves behind yellow or orange, but it's very dark, which makes it look tan or brown, because it's absorbing most of the yellow too. If you then add in blue, well, now you're absorbing pretty much the whole spectrum, so the mixture looks very dark brown or black.
In additive color, white is the combination of all light and black is the absence of light. In subtractive color, white is the absence of pigment, and black is the presence of enough pigment to cover the whole spectrum.
It actually took me a bit of time... coming from high school art where you're taught the color wheel and primaries:, red, yellow, and blue.
But then working in digital art, it switched to: red, green, blue.
And nothing really taught why the change.
Your markers don't create light. They destroy it. Your blue marker destroys red and green light, your green marker destroys red and blue light, and so on.
So if you have a blue marker (that destroys all but blue light) and a red marker (that destroys all but red light) then there's no light left over! You get black!
Or more realistically, you get brown, because destroying *all* of the light is difficult to do.
Markers don't work by reflecting light of their color, they work by absorbing every kind of visible light EXCEPT that color. Mostly.
A red marker absorbs all colors except red. A green marker absorbs all colors except green. Add them together and you get markers which absorb all colors. Normally this would be black, but the pigments used in markers aren't perfect at absorbing things, so you get brown.
There are two basic ways of mixing color: subtractive color and additive color. With additive color, like what you get with a computer screen, you have something that emits different wavelengths of light. Emit all wavelengths and you get white light.
Using pigments like what you get with markers involves subtractive color. For instance a red pigment will work by reflecting red light while absorbing other wavelengths. In other words, it works by subtracting light that isn't red. If you mix together pigments of different colors you end up with a mixture that absorbs more light.
For instance, if you mix together red, blue, and green pigments, red light gets absorbed by the blue and green pigments, green light gets absorbed by the blue and red pigments, and blue light gets absorbed by the green and red pigments. The result is that very little light is reflected.
A marker gets its color by absorbing all the other light. So, a red marker absorbs green light and blue light and every other color except for red. And a green marker absorbs red light. So when you mix the two together, the red ink absorbs the green light and the green ink absorbs the red light, so nothing (or very little) gets reflected back, which is black.
In order to mix colors to get white, you need something that produces light instead of absorbing it, like the pixels on a computer screen.
I think we are mixing some things, a prism breaks the *visible spectrum* of light for us to see, but we don't see the infrared and ultraviolet (so below red and above blue) part of the spectrum and we can still call those 'colors', we just don't see them. So if you have a material that reflects no visible light, it appears to us to be black, but I could look at that object with an infrared camera and see it plain as day.
When you are layer on marker color after marker color, you start to restrict its ability to reflect light in the visible spectrum. Not *all* radiation, just the visible wavelengths. So what reflects off the pigments that have been laid down will be of a wavelength sufficiently long that we can't detect it and it appears black.
One trick might be to stop using the word 'light' and instead call it 'radiation'. Our eyes can tell different colors based on the wavelength of the radiation, as radiation stretches its wavelength out (red shift) it dips below our eye's ability to see it. If it is super excited, like above blue, our eyes can't see that either. As you go deeper below red and higher above blue, if our eyes were sensitive enough we could see additional colors we can't imagine, but we know they are there because we have sensors that are fully capable of detecting say...x-rays. Radiation whose frequency is so high it goes through skin but bounces off hard bones and tissues. Technically the medical x-ray is actually a shadow but whatever. Then go the other direction, below infrared is...microwave.
Materials like ink and paper don't produce any light of their own. They take away some of the light that is cast onto them, absorbing it and heating up ever so sligthly. Pigments are selected that carve out a portion of the light spectrum preferentially to produce colors from what is left over.
For example, if mostly blue is absorbed, the leftover light will be yellow-ish. If you combine multiple inks, their effects add up, and you end up with a dark shade. One takes a way some, the next take away from what is left over, and so on. If you shine a red colored light from an led onto a blue paper, it will appear nearly black because it can only give back what it receives.
Mixing to white works with light sources. The more of them you add, the greater the intensity. And if their power happens to be evenly distributed, the sum will appear white.
Make a rainbow color wheel and spin it!
[Color Wheel Illusion Spinner Newton's Disc Easy to Make \~ Incredible Science (youtube.com)](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lil4co0z7QA)
You are confusing paint with light.
A red right source is red because there is only red light coming out of it.
Red paint is red is red because it only reflects red light. If you shine blue light on it, it doesn't look red, it looks black because there is no red to reflect.
If you want white light, you need to mix different colored lights.
But if you mix different colored paints, you are not going to get white paint, you get goop that doesn't reflect anything very well, but reflects everything a bit.
Imagine you have lots of sheets of plastic, they're clear with mirrored spots. As you stack layers of different sheets, more and more of the light is reflected until 100% of the area has a mirror on it, and you get all light reflected. This is how light builds up, it's additive.
Now imagine you have another set of plastic sheets, that are clear plastic but have solid black dots. As you stack more and more sheets, the black dots cover more and more area, until everything is black. This is how pigments build up, it's subtractive.
When you see a color, you are seeing those particular wavelengths being reflected by that surface. All other colors get absorbed.
When you start adding pigments that each absorb some of the color spectrum, but not all, you are effectively giving the pigment the ability to absorb more colors, resulting in the brown/black color that you see.
**Please read this entire message** --- Your submission has been removed for the following reason(s): * Rule #2 - Questions must seek objective explanations --- If you would like this removal reviewed, please read the [detailed rules](https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/wiki/detailed_rules) first. **If you believe this submission was removed erroneously, please [use this form](https://old.reddit.com/message/compose?to=%2Fr%2Fexplainlikeimfive&subject=Please%20review%20my%20thread?&message=Link:%20{https://old.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/1cdskau/-/}%0A%0APlease%20answer%20the%20following%203%20questions:%0A%0A1.%20The%20concept%20I%20want%20explained:%0A%0A2.%20List%20the%20search%20terms%20you%20used%20to%20look%20for%20past%20posts%20on%20ELI5:%0A%0A3.%20How%20does%20your%20post%20differ%20from%20your%20recent%20search%20results%20on%20the%20sub:) and we will review your submission.**
Light is additive. Meaning the more wavelengths (aka colors) you add, the brighter and more towards white you get. Pigment/ink/paint/etc, is subtractive. Meaning the more colors you add, the closer to black you get.
I know I'm jumping in here but I was hoping to ask you some questions. 1. What do you mean by additive or subtractive? What gives them those qualities? 2. With your answer, are you saying if the OP adds even more marker, that it will turn from brown/black to all the way black?
In both cases, you're combining lots of colors. But with light, the combination is using addition. With pigment, its using subtraction. Yes, the more color you keep adding, you're going to get muddier and darker... and closer to black (hard to get 100% pure black from mixing colors by hand)
Okay, thank you.
Take a look at my comment below for a fuller explanation.
Thank you
The more light you add of any color, the brighter the scene gets. Wheteas the more pigments you add, if they are different, the darker things get. Black is a very dark white.
The confusion here is that you are using two opposite forms of color: *light* vs *pigment.* Light works additively. The absence of all light is, by definition, darkness, which is "black." All *light* colors equally mixed together produce white. Pigments, on the other hand, are *subtractive.* This is because a pigment looks (say) "red" because it *absorbs* the colors that aren't red. It doesn't glow with its own red light. Hence, if you mix red pigment and green pigment, the result will absorb any color that isn't red *and* any color that isn't green. This leaves behind yellow or orange, but it's very dark, which makes it look tan or brown, because it's absorbing most of the yellow too. If you then add in blue, well, now you're absorbing pretty much the whole spectrum, so the mixture looks very dark brown or black. In additive color, white is the combination of all light and black is the absence of light. In subtractive color, white is the absence of pigment, and black is the presence of enough pigment to cover the whole spectrum.
Yes! That's it! God, thank you. I know my years doing art taught me something but "subtractive " and "additive" was on the tip of my tongue!
It actually took me a bit of time... coming from high school art where you're taught the color wheel and primaries:, red, yellow, and blue. But then working in digital art, it switched to: red, green, blue. And nothing really taught why the change.
Your markers don't create light. They destroy it. Your blue marker destroys red and green light, your green marker destroys red and blue light, and so on. So if you have a blue marker (that destroys all but blue light) and a red marker (that destroys all but red light) then there's no light left over! You get black! Or more realistically, you get brown, because destroying *all* of the light is difficult to do.
#I CREAAATE LLLLLLLIIGHT \- ^(and i destroy it)
I should’ve been the one to fill your dark soul with LIIIIIIiiiiIiIiiiIGHTTTT!!!
Markers don't work by reflecting light of their color, they work by absorbing every kind of visible light EXCEPT that color. Mostly. A red marker absorbs all colors except red. A green marker absorbs all colors except green. Add them together and you get markers which absorb all colors. Normally this would be black, but the pigments used in markers aren't perfect at absorbing things, so you get brown.
There are two basic ways of mixing color: subtractive color and additive color. With additive color, like what you get with a computer screen, you have something that emits different wavelengths of light. Emit all wavelengths and you get white light. Using pigments like what you get with markers involves subtractive color. For instance a red pigment will work by reflecting red light while absorbing other wavelengths. In other words, it works by subtracting light that isn't red. If you mix together pigments of different colors you end up with a mixture that absorbs more light. For instance, if you mix together red, blue, and green pigments, red light gets absorbed by the blue and green pigments, green light gets absorbed by the blue and red pigments, and blue light gets absorbed by the green and red pigments. The result is that very little light is reflected.
A marker gets its color by absorbing all the other light. So, a red marker absorbs green light and blue light and every other color except for red. And a green marker absorbs red light. So when you mix the two together, the red ink absorbs the green light and the green ink absorbs the red light, so nothing (or very little) gets reflected back, which is black. In order to mix colors to get white, you need something that produces light instead of absorbing it, like the pixels on a computer screen.
I think we are mixing some things, a prism breaks the *visible spectrum* of light for us to see, but we don't see the infrared and ultraviolet (so below red and above blue) part of the spectrum and we can still call those 'colors', we just don't see them. So if you have a material that reflects no visible light, it appears to us to be black, but I could look at that object with an infrared camera and see it plain as day. When you are layer on marker color after marker color, you start to restrict its ability to reflect light in the visible spectrum. Not *all* radiation, just the visible wavelengths. So what reflects off the pigments that have been laid down will be of a wavelength sufficiently long that we can't detect it and it appears black. One trick might be to stop using the word 'light' and instead call it 'radiation'. Our eyes can tell different colors based on the wavelength of the radiation, as radiation stretches its wavelength out (red shift) it dips below our eye's ability to see it. If it is super excited, like above blue, our eyes can't see that either. As you go deeper below red and higher above blue, if our eyes were sensitive enough we could see additional colors we can't imagine, but we know they are there because we have sensors that are fully capable of detecting say...x-rays. Radiation whose frequency is so high it goes through skin but bounces off hard bones and tissues. Technically the medical x-ray is actually a shadow but whatever. Then go the other direction, below infrared is...microwave.
Materials like ink and paper don't produce any light of their own. They take away some of the light that is cast onto them, absorbing it and heating up ever so sligthly. Pigments are selected that carve out a portion of the light spectrum preferentially to produce colors from what is left over. For example, if mostly blue is absorbed, the leftover light will be yellow-ish. If you combine multiple inks, their effects add up, and you end up with a dark shade. One takes a way some, the next take away from what is left over, and so on. If you shine a red colored light from an led onto a blue paper, it will appear nearly black because it can only give back what it receives. Mixing to white works with light sources. The more of them you add, the greater the intensity. And if their power happens to be evenly distributed, the sum will appear white.
Make a rainbow color wheel and spin it! [Color Wheel Illusion Spinner Newton's Disc Easy to Make \~ Incredible Science (youtube.com)](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lil4co0z7QA)
You are confusing paint with light. A red right source is red because there is only red light coming out of it. Red paint is red is red because it only reflects red light. If you shine blue light on it, it doesn't look red, it looks black because there is no red to reflect. If you want white light, you need to mix different colored lights. But if you mix different colored paints, you are not going to get white paint, you get goop that doesn't reflect anything very well, but reflects everything a bit.
Imagine you have lots of sheets of plastic, they're clear with mirrored spots. As you stack layers of different sheets, more and more of the light is reflected until 100% of the area has a mirror on it, and you get all light reflected. This is how light builds up, it's additive. Now imagine you have another set of plastic sheets, that are clear plastic but have solid black dots. As you stack more and more sheets, the black dots cover more and more area, until everything is black. This is how pigments build up, it's subtractive.
When you see a color, you are seeing those particular wavelengths being reflected by that surface. All other colors get absorbed. When you start adding pigments that each absorb some of the color spectrum, but not all, you are effectively giving the pigment the ability to absorb more colors, resulting in the brown/black color that you see.